Serme and Willstrop claim European Gold at David Ross Sports Village

After an electric 4-days at David Ross Sports Village, England and France shared the top honours of the AJ Bell European Individual Championships (24 - 27 August), as James Willstrop and Camille Serme win contrasting Anglo-French finals.

University of Nottingham Scholar, Coline Aumard, appeared in the women’s semi-finals against Belgium's Nele Gils, who went on to win the bronze in Sunday’s performance.

"Long matches are what I live for" joked Gilis. "Obviously it would have been nice to go one better than last year's silver, but Camille is a great champion and I've lost to her three years in a row. I lost the 3/4 match to Coline two years ago, so […] I'm very happy to go home with Bronze."

Gold medallist, Serme, appearing in her seventh consecutive final, claimed Gold for the sixth time in a row with a comprehensive three-game win over Millie Tomlinson, who was meeting world #3 Serme for the first time.

Serme said: "I couldn't afford to play Millie at 90%, she's too dangerous so I had to be on top of my game. I'm happy with how I played and extremely proud to become European Champion again."

Home hopes then rested on Willstrop as he took on France's Gregory Gaultier, the world #1 who was appearing in his 13th consecutive EIC final and looking for a 10th title.

The Englishman’s win was belated revenge for his defeat by Gaultier in the 2004 EIC semi-finals - when Gaultier went on to take his first title - and England's first male success in the revamped event, following Chris Walker's hat-trick in the early 90s.

"That was a brutal match at times, it's hard to believe we've been playing each other like that for so long! […] "Greg is a great champion, and I'm proud to beat him. "It's been a great event, thanks to all the sponsors, AJ Bell , Nottingham and the University for putting on the event in such a great venue. A special thanks to Malcolm, for all he's done for me over the years, this one is for you!"